They are black and white, yet, as we all know, Deckard would be too young for close relatives portrates to be pictured in this old fasion. Is this evidence that his past was contrived by his maker? Maybe it became stylish again to depict oneself in the late 19th century fasion. Or maybe there is a completely good explanation I am overlooking, better yet, that you have already discussed this.

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Those pictures could of meant many things. Maybe he's a replicant and those pictures were placed by tyrell corp or those were pictures that came with frames or those are just old family photos passed down generations, or they there photos found in the music sheets, or maybe he collects old style photos, who knows. [addsig]

I think they are just relics from his family history. Same with the piano. Deckard doesn't seem like the piano playing type, and when his wife left him (assuming this is the Deckard that was divorced) I'm sure she would have taken the paino. That or the paino is also a relic from his history that he's kept.

One of the great things about the photos on the piano that is they reinforce the retro, noirish feel of Deckard's apartment and, at the same time, give a sense of loneliness to the Deckard character.

I'm in the "Deckard is human" camp, so I believe the "old photos" are simply a collection Deckard has. The only speculation I would have about them is whether they are his family photos, those of his ex-wife, the apartment's previous occupant, and/or he just collects old photos.

While Deckard comes off as a "cold fish" throughout most of the film, I believe the piano scenes establish that he was once an emotional, maybe even sentimental person (at least privately). Maybe the photo collection was his way of connecting to a "brighter past" that he never knew (he'd have been born in the early 1980s). Maybe he enjoyed (playing) music at one time. You'll note that when Deckard sits next to Rachael while she plays, he closes his eyes, as if in appreciation of the music. He tells her she "plays beautifully" (before making a play of his own ). I think his years as a Blade Runner and his divorce killed Deckard's sentimental notions, but he still hangs onto the photos and piano to remind him of the man he used to be while he wallows in his "mid-life slump" we find him in during the film.

As for the "Deckard a replicant" theory, I wonder why they would give the Deckard replicant such old photos. Rachael has the photo that's supposed to be of her with her mother. Leon's photos are even more recent, so why black & white prints for Deckard?

Anyone care to speculate about the duck figurine on the piano?

"It would only take a nudge to make you like me; to push you out of the light."

The Abyss Gazes Also wrote:He tells her she "plays beautifully" (before making a play of his own ).

As for the "Deckard a replicant" theory, I wonder why they would give the Deckard replicant such old photos. Rachael has the photo that's supposed to be of her with her mother. Leon's photos are even more recent, so why black & white prints for Deckard?

Anyone care to speculate about the duck figurine on the piano?

lol. Nice pun.

I would guess that they gave Deckard a longer photo history than Rachael or Leon or Roy because he's a newer replicant model and the Tyrell corp. has to try even harder to cover their asses to ensure nothing goes wrong with the test subject (Deckard). This actually brings up a new debate I should open a thread about. I would think that the goal of the Tyrell corp would be to get as human as possible and surpass it (more human than human). But there's still flaws, obviously: The VK test. What if the goal of the newer model was to fool the VK test? The nexus 7 would be undetectable and even more human. And to top it off they even throw in 100 years of history memorabilia from his family just to make him even more convincing.

The subject of argument I was suggesting above was do you think the Tyrell corp is subject by law to make its replicant detectable by VK machines? Or do you think the bone marrow analysis is all the government would require? Is this worthy of another thread for debat? Because it seems every thread I start for debates goes unanswered now and Im just polluting the forums with my rambling.

THX1138 wrote:I would guess that they gave Deckard a longer photo history than Rachael or Leon or Roy because he's a newer replicant model and the Tyrell corp. has to try even harder to cover their asses to ensure nothing goes wrong with the test subject (Deckard). This actually brings up a new debate I should open a thread about. I would think that the goal of the Tyrell corp would be to get as human as possible and surpass it (more human than human). But there's still flaws, obviously: The VK test. What if the goal of the newer model was to fool the VK test? The nexus 7 would be undetectable and even more human. And to top it off they even throw in 100 years of history memorabilia from his family just to make him even more convincing.

The subject of argument I was suggesting above was do you think the Tyrell corp is subject by law to make its replicant detectable by VK machines? Or do you think the bone marrow analysis is all the government would require? Is this worthy of another thread for debat? Because it seems every thread I start for debates goes unanswered now and Im just polluting the forums with my rambling.

I think these issues deserve to be in their own thread(s). I'll be there with my own ideas (even if I don't subscribe to the "Deck a Rep" theory).

Look forward to the thoughts!

"It would only take a nudge to make you like me; to push you out of the light."

The photos on his piano made me for the very first time question Deckard's nature. In 1982, I was sitting in the theater, watching Blade Runner for, I don't know, the fifth or sixth time and during the pan shot I suddenly asked myself, "Why the special attention for the photos? Wait a minute! Photos! Replicants need photos. Suddenly everything fell into place. For the first time I knew the film made very subtle allusions to Deckard's origin. It was so hidden, so subtle, so brilliant. Later my suspicions were acknowledged when I learned that a unicorn scene (a scene with a very clear purpose to hint) was removed from the film.

Leon Corporation wrote:The photos on his piano made me for the very first time question Deckard's nature. In 1982, I was sitting in the theater, watching Blade Runner for, I don't know, the fifth or sixth time and during the pan shot I suddenly asked myself, "Why the special attention for the photos? Wait a minute! Photos! Replicants need photos. Suddenly everything fell into place. For the first time I knew the film made very subtle allusions to Deckard's origin. It was so hidden, so subtle, so brilliant. Later my suspicions were acknowledged when I learned that a unicorn scene (a scene with a very clear purpose to hint) was removed from the film.

The photos certainly established a commonality between Deckard and his replicant quarry. One could also look at Deckard's photos as showing that humans, like Replicants, cling to objects such as photos to connect with the past, no matter how tenuous that connection may be.

That's how I saw it during the original theatrical run (and still cling to the notion, considering my preference that Deckard is human).

"It would only take a nudge to make you like me; to push you out of the light."